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ASCPT Member of the Month
The ASCPT Member of the Month-a forum to recognize and thank a member of ASCPT who has supported the Society's endeavors. Each month ASCPT highlights ONE member who has gone above and beyond the call of duty. We hope you enjoy learning about your fellow members and always encourage your participation in Society events and activities. ASCPT is proud to recognize Dr. Richard Lalonde, PharmD, as Member of the Month for June, 2006. Dr. Lalonde has been an active member of ASCPT for over 25 years and has served in a variety of important leadership roles with the Society. Currently, Dr. Lalonde is a member of the Scientific Program Committee and serves as Chair of the Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism Section (PHK). He also serves on ASCPT's Coordinating Committee on Scientific Sections with oversight responsibilities for Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism (PHK), Pharmacometrics and Biostatistics (PHM) and Gastrointestinal, Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases (GEM) sections. In a recent interview, Dr. Lalonde told ASCPT that the area of clinical pharmacology most exciting to him is, "Development and application of novel pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic methods, including modeling and simulations, to provide a more quantitative basis for translational research and improve the design of clinical trials. This makes the development of new drugs more efficient and addresses the current 'critical path' problem in drug development." He added, "Clinical pharmacologists with these specialized skills are influencing the design of not only relatively small clinical pharmacology studies but also large multi-center safety/efficacy clinical trials. The latter represents an important and relatively new opportunity for our discipline. A key challenge going forward will be to support the training and development of scientists with these specialized PK-PD modeling and simulation skills because the current demand far exceeds the supply." Dr. Lalonde is the Executive Director and Global Head of Clinical Pharmacology for Pfizer Global Research and Development in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He credits ASCPT --and especially the ASCPT annual meetings with having been a very important part of his career development. "The annual meeting has been particularly useful for me to network with colleagues from academia, industry and regulatory agencies. I very often get ideas from posters/presentations at the annual meeting that I can apply to the challenges that I face in my organization." The meetings also have "allowed me to meet and develop collaborations with many leaders in our discipline over the years". Thank you, Dr. Lalonde, for your valuable leadership in ASCPT and the discipline of clinical pharmacology!
Previous Members of the Month:May 2006 - Andrea Gaedigk, PhD, |
